No more discretion for men caught visiting prostitutes

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Men who visit prostitutes in Stockholm will from now on find it harder to keep their habits hidden from wives and partners.

Until March of this year, Stockholm police's trafficking group would use a degree of discretion, sending out the notice of suspected involvement in a crime and the summons for questioning to the workplace.

Now such sensitive paperwork will be sent to the home.

"That's what you do in all other crimes, like rape, for example, and this should be treated the same. But we were very sensitive before," said Anette Dargen, an investigator in Stockholm's trafficking group.

The reason for the sensitivity was not so much the man involved as his family.

"It is a crime of shame so we would send the summons to work or call the person up," said Dargen.

The policy of sending the paperwork to the man's home is already making an impact, according to the trafficking group. Officers have had numerous furious calls both from the men themselves and from wives or partners who have opened the letters.

"Usually they already had their suspicions but now they've got it in black and white," said Anette Dargen.

Buying sexual services in the rest of the country is a relatively low-risk venture compared to Stockholm, however. Elsewhere, suspects can choose where correspondence is sent.

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